Nights of the Stranger
by Kuroneko19
Summary: AU. For thirteen nights, Lina Inverse is guided by mysterious and silent man. She doesn't know what it is he's trying to show her, but she follows him anyway. His intentions? That's a secret...
1. The Stranger

_**Author's Note:**__ This little fic was inadvertently spawned from reading _IDK_'s __**Almost Lina**__. I toyed around with the idea for a bit, and after listening to Buck-Tick's song __**Ijin no Yoru**__ (from which I gained a great deal of influence), I went directly into plot development and presto!_

_Let me know what you think! Please remember: all questions, comments, constructive criticism, and/or suggestions are welcome._

_Thanks for reading!_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own anything from _**Slayers**_. I just like to write for fun. ^_^_

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><p><em><strong>Nights of the Stranger<strong>_  
>By Kuroneko<p>

_Curiosity killed the cat.  
>Satisfaction brought it back.<em>  
>– Old Proverb<p>

**The Stranger**

Lina Inverse groaned aloud and smacked herself on the forehead, the bright display on her laptop illuminating her frustrated features in the dimly lit living room. A quick glance at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen told her it was practically one in the morning, but there was no way that she was going to pack it in for the night. Professor Valazard demanded to see rough drafts out of all of them in class first thing, and Lina barely had her thesis statement composed!

'_I knew I should've asked Zel for help,'_ she though ruefully. Cajoling Zelgadis Greywers for assistance was never easy, but at least the work got done. Never done _for_ her, of course. Not only was it against Zel's standards to do someone else's homework for them, but Professor Ascher Valazard, psychology professor extraordinaire at Saillune University, could sense a plagiarized paper all the way from Sairaag, even if he _was_ blind.

That wasn't exaggeration; that was the truth. Amelia's older sister, Gracia (best known as Naga in all the nightclubs), had been in Sairaag for a theatre club's usual competition, and had decided to copy off a paper written by someone guy named Jeffrey. That had been a stupid move on Naga's part, Lina reflected – no matter how much Jeffrey's mother Josephine harped about her son's supposed greatness, the fact remained that Jeffrey Maelstorm was a social klutz, physically challenged, and far-and-wide the worst student of psychology (or any other subject, for that matter) this side of the Demon Sea. The end result had been Jeffrey receiving a failing grade and Naga getting booted out of Valazard's class for infringement of the university's academic honesty policy.

Not even Josephine's infamous (and what many rumored to be demonic) attempts at proving her son's worth changed the professor's mind, which caused both students and staff to wonder if Valazard was even human. Everyone knew that Josephine's husband, Goldias, had long ago disappeared with the excuse of going to get milk; according to all the rumors, he supposedly had run off to somewhere in Dils. It was a general rule of thumb just to promote Jeffrey along in order to avoid his mother no matter _what_ the truth was. Valazard had been the only one to break that Golden Rule; no one knew whether to label him as brave or insane.

Rumor had it that Josephine was _still_ plotting revenge against the man.

Lina wouldn't have expected anything less of the professor whose favorite pupil just happened to have been her older sister. Luna Inverse had graced the professor's desks with sharp-witted answers and carefully constructed essays; her presentations always left permanent impressions on those in the room. Valazard's assistant, a strangely effeminate young man named Miwan, had also been left astounded. Luna was probably the first and only student to have left the psychology professor's class with a perfect grade.

Unfortunately, that just put the pressure on Lina tenfold. Sure, she was a pretty darn good judge of character, but was it really necessary to have to memorize all those concepts and applications? She doubted highly that anything she wanted to do would require her to accurately detail Pavlov's conditioning experiments with dogs, and she didn't believe for one moment that she would have to remember the particulars of anything Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung did.

This paper on Neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development didn't exactly improve her attitude towards the psychology course requirements.

She cast another wary glance over to the pile of books to her left again and finally let her head fall into her arms with another loud groan. Even if she got the rough draft done, she still wouldn't have time to finish mythology assignment Zel's great-grandfather Rezo had handed out. And she _still_ hadn't finished the Chemistry worksheet he'd instructed them to do before class in the morning.

"I'm so _tired_…" she moaned to herself. "I'm never going to get any sleep at this rate… it's no _fair_…"

The living room was stifling even with the ceiling fan and the fan next to her both running on their highest settings and the window in front of her opened to allow in the night breezes. Because of all the expenses that came with renting an apartment, Lina couldn't afford to run the air conditioning even if it was working. The previous resident had beaten the unit to a pulp after they'd been evicted for nonpayment; the landlord _still_ hadn't gotten around to fixing the stupid thing.

Despite her best efforts, Lina could already feel herself nodding off. The apartment was quiet; the only sounds the traffic and laughter coming from below like some kind of lullaby. The smells of the city were the strangely comfortable ones of car exhaust, food from the restaurants three streets over, and whatever else came made up the nightlife scents of Saillune. All of it was familiar and, even if it _wasn't_ good to breathe in, it eased her tension.

'_I'll just take a quick nap… it won't hurt if I take a break for a little while…'_

Blessed sleep evaded her yet again that night, for no sooner had Lina resolved to relinquish her body to those circadian rhythms Valazard had been discussing two days ago she felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickle – an indicator that she wasn't alone in the apartment.

Careful not to alert whoever-it-was to her being aware of their presence, Lina carefully slipped one hand under her desk where she had a small bat stashed. She'd have to thank her sister for this bit of wisdom: Luna had once told her that, back in olden days, a bartender's best friend was a bat under the bar.

Considering those words had come from a waitress, and that waitress had been _Luna Inverse_, Lina had taken them very, very seriously.

She didn't hear any breathing behind her, but she could still feel the presence. She knew all too well that this person was an unwanted intruder; _no one_ she knew would enter her apartment so silently. Amelia would just bounce in unannounced, Gourry would pound on the door a few times before letting himself in, and Sylphiel would knock and ring the doorbell before standing back and waiting for Lina to answer the door. On the rare occasions he actually came over, Zelgadis would ring twice and stand there with his arms folded before he resorted to pounding on the door, and he'd only done that once when Lina had taken too long in the shower.

No, it wasn't any of them, and it couldn't possibly have been Filia or anyone else she knew.

"You know, it's _rude_ to enter a girl's apartment without knocking or ringing the doorbell," she said testily.

She received no answer, which made her even angrier despite the chill that had gone up her spine. The idea that someone had entered without her knowledge was frightening, but, damn it all, she'd just paid the rent for this place! Like _hell_ she was going to just let this guy just waltz in and take things!

Without another word or thought, Lina swung her bat with all her might, catching a flash of purple as she did so.

The bat never connected.

Lina stood, shell-shocked and shaken as she watched the bat go through the man's coattails. She hazarded a look to his face and nearly dropped her weapon in the process.

He looked to be older than she was, with a mop of dead-straight purple hair that went nearly to his shoulders. He wore a classy black suit with a matching long overcoat that hung a few inches from the floor. In his grasp was a long staff of darkened wood, a large blood-red jewel at the top.

What really got Lina was that he was just standing there and grinning like the Cheshire Cat, almost as if he was currently enjoying some kind of personal joke.

She shook off the oddity of the man's appearance and glared at him. The mystery of her bat's lack of connection flew right out of her mind as the most important question of all flew out of her mouth:

"Who are you? And what are doing in my apartment without permission?"


	2. Taken by the Hand

_**Author's Note:**__ Writing Xellos without him having the ability to speak was pretty tricky, especially in this part. This is one experience that gives me newfound respect for spoken conversation. Subtracting one of the five senses from a primary character is actually pretty challenging, and it makes character interaction more difficult than usual. Truthfully, though, I'm having fun with it. ^_^_

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><p><strong>Taken by the Hand<strong>

The stranger didn't answer. Instead, he continued to smile that nerve-grating smile with his eyes closed, shoulders shaking as if he were struggling not to laugh.

Needless to say, Lina wasn't pleased.

"All right, buddy, you've got ten seconds to either tell me how you got in here and why, or leave. What'll it be?"

Again, the stranger did not answer. His shoulders were trembling in silent laughter even more than before. Lina didn't see what was so funny; here she was, fully prepared to clobber the man, and yet he did absolutely nothing to rectify the situation!

She didn't even bother to let the full ten seconds pass; instead, she swung her bat around once more, this time taking careful aim at the intruder's head.

Dodging the impending blow was what she'd expected. _Catching the bat_ was _not_.

Lina blinked furiously as the stranger continued to chuckle, waggling the index finger of his free hand in mock disapproval. What was going on here? Every time she'd clobbered someone, bat or no bat, the first reaction was one loud screech of pain and indignation. Not even Zelgadis for all his stoic mannerisms could hold back a loud screech once Lina landed a punch.

Common Sense dictates that a woman living alone suddenly finding herself with a strange man in her apartment should give a loud and obligatory shriek for help. Common Sense also dictates that self-defense is necessary in this kind of scenario.

Lina Inverse had never been one for the dictations of Common Sense.

She wrenched the bat free and slung it over her shoulder with a frown. "You're not here to rob me, are you?"

The stranger's smile intensified as he shook his head in negation.

Lina gripped on the bat even harder. "Kidnap and hold me for ransom? Murder? Rape?"

The last suggestion caused the man to wave his frantically as he shook his head again, a sweat-drop forming over his temple. Lina scowled.

"Well, if you're not here to do anything to me, then just what the hell _are_ you doing here?"

The stranger smiled again.

Lina groaned and smacked herself on the forehead. This cross-examination was getting her nowhere and she was busy. She stalked over to the front door and opened it, pointing to the hallway with her bat.

"Out. Now."

The purple-haired man tilted his head and put a finger to his chin, face thoughtful though his eyes were still shut. After a moment, his face lit up with the same goofy grin and he shook his head once more in negation.

"I'm not giving you a choice in the matter. Out."

He shook his head again, grinning all the while.

Lina groaned. "So you're not leaving?"

Again, he shook his head.

"Fine!" Exasperated, she slammed the door shut and stormed past the now somewhat surprised man in a huff towards the kitchen. "Make yourself at home! I'm getting a sandwich."

The stranger tilted his head to one side and raised an eyebrow. When he saw the light spill out from the opened refrigerator, his shoulders shook in silent laughter once more.

She certainly was an interesting one.

**…**

Lina grabbed the deli sandwich and hastily pulled it from its wrapper before taking a large mouthful. The crunching of lettuce was a familiar and comforting sound, and helped take off the edge from her earlier scare.

The _nerve_ of that guy! She thought as she took another bite, ham, cheddar, lettuce, and tomato mingling with mayonnaise and mustard. Just who _was_ he, showing up out of the blue like that?

She slammed the refrigerator door shut and toted both bat and half-eaten sandwich back into the living room, where her unexpected guest had taken to reading her computer screen.

"Get away from there!" He jumped back in astonishment at the sound of her sandwich-muffled command, and proceeded to look over at the collection of pictures she had on the desk.

With a prod of her bat, both man and staff escaped to the other side of the living room, likely to find something else to ruminate over. That suited Lina fine. Now that she had been woken up properly and was eating, she had enough energy to continue with Professor Valazard's essay.

A harsh pounding on the door quickly dashed that plan to bits.

"Great. _Now_ what?" She slammed her sandwich on the desk and shouldered her bat again, ignoring the suddenly panicked look on the purple-haired man's face.

She looked through the peephole and let out another groan before unlatching the door and opening it.

"What's up, guys?" she asked the disgruntled couple in the hallway.

"We were about to ask you the same thing, kid," Aramis Dawes-Trask drawled sleepily. His long and wavy chocolate brown hair was messier than usual, and he looked like he'd been sleeping in his uniform again.

"Yeah, we thought you had another idiot show up or something," his wife and partner, Helmina, supplied, stifling a yawn. "You were being kinda loud."

Lina tossed her bat behind the door and gave them an apologetic smile. "Sorry about that, you guys. This guy just showed up and startled me, that's all."

"Guy?" Aramis' brown eyes narrowed and he looked past the petite redhead at the purple-headed man, who gave a cheerful wave from his place by the bookcase. "Who's he?"

"No idea," Lina admitted. "I've never seen him before."

"Me neither. I think I'd recognize someone looking like him. What about you, Hell-Cat?"

Helmina looked at the stranger and shook her head. "Nobody I've ever seen." To Lina, she spoke lower. "Want us to get rid of him?"

Nobody noticed the startled look cross over the man's face.

"Nah," Lina said with a shrug. "I think it'll be okay. He isn't like the last guy that showed up."

Aramis let out a snort at the same time Helmina stifled her own laughter. "Yeah, I remember that nerd. What a wimp! Well, pound on the wall if you need us, 'kay?"

"Sure thing, you guys. Sorry for waking you up."

Helmina waved the apology aside. "Don't worry about it. Stuff like this keeps us on our toes. Night."

"Night."

She shut the door and cast a cursory glance at her unexpected guest before returning to her assignments and her sandwich.

**…**

Some twenty minutes later, Lina let out another loud groan. It was nearly two in the morning and she _still_ wasn't any closer to being finished with her homework! Ceipheid help her, if she didn't get this rough draft done, Valazard was going to fail her!

If that happened… _Luna…_

She took in a deep breath and looked over for the silent stranger, finding his staff leaning next to her bat in the corner behind the front door. The purple-haired man himself was currently amusing himself by poking a finger at her small aquarium on the opposite wall.

"Cut it out," she growled. He immediately ceased and meandered into the kitchen.

She sighed heavily, but was rather surprised to discover herself nowhere near as tense as she'd been earlier. Aside from the initial shock of finding a strange man in her apartment and his irritating mannerisms, Lina found that there was little about him to put her ill at ease, although he _was_ poking his nose into practically every nook-and-cranny.

That on its own made her feel a bit uncertain – not so much the continuous searching, but her unexplained calm. She was _never_ comfortable around those of the opposite gender. Men in general tended to find favor with her fiery mane, but that was it. When it came down to anatomy, Lina was at a disadvantage when compared to her friends; unlike Sylphiel, Amelia, and even Filia, who worked in the school's library, Lina was considerably underdeveloped and was continuously poked fun at for it. Her mother called it genetics; after all, Lina's cousin, Kyrie, had the exact same problem. But Lina knew better. Ky had a sweet disposition, and she'd already found herself a "nice young man"; Lina had a temper that rivaled her own hair color. What man would find _that_ attractive?

Lina took a deep breath and attempted to rationalize her current situation, temporarily shoving aside her lack of romantic college intrigue. The idea of this guy being a home invader or any other kind of perpetrator was already dashed to pieces – he would have done something by now if that were the case. He seemed too absorbed in looking at random things to be a real threat. And since Helmina and Aramis didn't see anything off, she didn't see the point in worrying. Both of them were on the police force and had done enough street work to sense a criminal within a two-block radius. If neither of them were suspicious enough to drag him out right then and there, that accounted for something.

The only other option was that Amelia had tried to set her up another blind date.

_That_ wouldn't have surprised her in the least; the last time the younger girl had tried to set Lina up, the date in question had been a wealthy young man named Hallis Ryzu. From what she gathered, Hallis lived in the same neighborhood as Amelia, played on Saillune University's baseball team (and turned out to be a very good player, a fact that had greatly astonished her) and had expressed a sincere interest in the raven-haired girl's fiery friend while going home on several occasions. Amelia had taken it upon herself to see to dinner reservations and a night of what Lina sourly referred to as "Harlequin Romance". The only result of _that_ little escapade had been Hallis showing up at Lina's door and the redhead opening it, revealing herself clad in sweats and battling a head cold. The moment the guy with the mop of light brown hair uttered, "Wow, you look awful," Lina sent him flying down the hall, causing him to hit the wall, creating a large dent before falling down the emergency stairwell. Aramis and Helmina had been coming back from a full day's rounds in time to watch him go flying.

Aramis' shout of "Field goal!" sent Lina and the tenants who'd poked their heads out to take a look at the latest victim of her wrath into gales of laughter.

The best part of the whole incident was that it was Hallis who'd had to pay for the damages – the landlord knew better than to tangle with his redheaded tenant, _especially_ when she was under the weather.

Unfortunately, the nerdy baseball player was persistent, and considered himself enamored with Lina the moment he laid eyes on her. When she told Aramis, he laughed it off and said the guy had hit his head too hard; he'd give up soon.

Contrary to the police officer's prediction, she was _still_ having problems dodging Hallis Ryzu.

Even after multiple failures, Amelia was adamant in her search for Lina's so-called "Knight in Shining Armor". Such searches had led to the ill-tempered college sophomore encountering invertebrates like Hallis and outright snobs like Abel Ranzaad, all under the "good intentions" of the second daughter of the House of Saillune. All her attempts had been wasted on Gourry, and Zelgadis… well, everyone knew about Amelia's crush on _him_.

Lina cast a wary glance over to the silent purple-headed stranger who was contemplating a picture over her couch. He wasn't anything like the others; the ones Amelia had apparently pulled off the street at random were either too pushy or massively uninterested, and _all_ of them had something to say. She wasn't sure whether to appreciate the silence or to be irritated by it.

He'd appeared without a sound, not even of the door clicking, dodged her blows, blocked the last one, and grinned all the while. To top it all off, he hadn't said a single word despite having shown up at this ungodly hour.

If he was one of Amelia's little blind dates, he was making one hell of a first impression.

'_At least he isn't listing his social graces or trying to get in on the Saillune family's good side.'_ That last thought made Lina frown at her computer screen. There had once been a rather pushy fellow she'd had difficulty with, one she couldn't remember the name of. When it turned out he was only trying to gain favor with Amelia's family, Lina had been livid. _That_ guy had been taken care of specifically by one _Luna_ _Inverse_.

Nobody had either seen or heard from him since the fateful day that evil-grinning waitress paid him a nice little social call.

'_Now, _this_ guy…'_

She glanced over again. He certainly was dressed for a night on the town. _Tastefully_ dressed in her opinion, although the staff was probably the weirdest accessory she'd ever seen. And showing up at _this_ hour…

Maybe he worked late hours… if he was indeed a blind date like all the others…

She was going to have to have another long discussion with Amelia.

The words still stared at her from the screen:

_Criticized on many grounds, Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development was put under the microscope and examined. Part of the problem stemmed from the lack of explanation as to why the stage-to-stage development occurs._

Lina tapped her fingers angrily on the desk. There was no way that Valazard was going to accept this line of garbage. She could already hear the diatribe: half-formed, half-baked, little if any thought put into it…

A set of hands set on her shoulders and fingers move about gently in a massage. She leaned back, thoroughly enjoying the experience for that brief moment. Then she remembered who else was in the apartment, and rounded a well-aimed punch in the face sending him flying smack into her couch.

"Watch it, buddy!" she snapped, fully turned in her seat, eyes ablaze.

Then she noticed it. Narrowed eyes widened at the sudden realization, no longer looking at the strange man who was currently rubbing his cheek, still wearing that lopsided grin.

Sweltering heat no longer plagued the apartment; it felt light and cool, as if she was standing outside in the nightly breeze. Sweat no longer clung to her like a second skin. Touching the back of her neck gingerly, she found her hair to be completely dry.

'_What the…?'_

A white-gloved hand extended to her, breaking her from her stupor. Lina looked up to find the stranger grinning down at her pleasantly.

"What?" she demanded. He swept a bow, his hand indicating the direction of the door before extending once more towards her. Her crimson eyes darted from the door to the stranger, an eyebrow arched questioningly. "You want to go out?"

He nodded emphatically, his hand still extended.

Lina hesitated, uncertain if she should follow this complete stranger out of her relatively safe apartment. She knew that the smartest thing to do would be to stay right where she was. Helmina and Aramis were right next door and always attuned to whatever odd happenings might occur in the complex. If anything happened, the landlord, a burly guy named Volun, would _definitely_ come running if it meant extending his already long line of supposedly heroic deeds.

"But I don't even know your name," she said. The stranger merely shrugged his shoulders as if to say such a thing was trivial.

Lina Inverse was never known to be foolish when it came to strangers. It wasn't in her nature. Yet, for some reason unfathomable even to her, she took his hand and followed him to the door. The stranger paused only to grab his staff. Holding it in the crook of his free arm, he opened the door.

Lina knew right then that she'd made a mistake. As soon as the door flew open, a blinding white light surrounded them, and the stranger began pulling her towards it, despite her sudden attempts to break from his grip.

**…**

As the light faded and the door slammed shut, a new figure shook her head and chuckled.

"Well, that was as over-the-top as ever. Talk about making a first impression. He'd better not screw up _this_ time. Now then…"

She sat down at the desk, bespectacled eyes looking intently at the half-baked attempt at an essay on the redhead's computer.

"Neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development? This should prove interesting. Not a bad start, but it sure needs a lot of work. But first, let's take a look at that unbalanced equation of hers…" The girl picked up a worksheet from the pile and winced before setting it back down. "Then again, let's not and say we did…"

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><p><em>So, just where is this purple-headed stranger taking her? We'll have to wait and see! Until the next chapter!<em>


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